Food preparation consumes a considerable amount of time and energy in the daily routine of many families' lives. The effort required for cutting or slicing larger vegetables can be problematic, especially for people with limited strength or dexterity. Large vegetables, such as turnips, squash, melon, yarns, and others all represent a particularly problematic challenge, since the force required to chop these vegetables is considerable and they all have a tendency to roll. Many users find this lack of stability to be a challenge and a safety concern.
By providing a pivot point that is integrated to the food preparation surface, one can match their cutting device into a pivot point and place the food to be cut between the pivot and the handle of the cutting device. In such a way, the user gains beneficial leverage while constraining the total number of forces to be managed. This greatly reduces cutting effort, reduces undesired knife motion and reduces untoward motion of foodstuffs. When the knife is cutting in a downward direction on the food, the force on the pivot point will be in the upward direction. There will also be linear forces along the knife. Typically, linear forces are along a vector that emanates from the hand on the handle pushing down toward the blade.
Other cutting devices known in the art include traditional paper cutters as well as a leverage cutting board known as the “Cape-Cod Cutting Board” and other devices that connect the knife to a pivot attached to the cutting board. Slicing devices known in the prior art generally comprise a frame coupled to a blade in one of several well-known configurations. In one example of a typical slicing device, the blade is fixed to the frame. The foodstuff is sliced by moving the foodstuff over or under an exposed element of the blade. Users may encounter difficulty when there is a small amount of foodstuff between their hand and the blade.
The prior art also discloses a slicing device where the knife is pivotably mounted to the frame. U.S. Pat. No. 4,054,994 provides a fixture for attaching a knife to a breadboard. The front end of the knife is pivoted to the attachment so that the knife may be pivotably swung for chopping foodstuff. In another arrangement the knife is provided with a longitudinally extending slot at the forward end so that the knife may be guided and moved longitudinally for slicing food and the like. The prior art also discloses a knife-like device with parallel blades for chopping food. The blades may be pivotably attached to the frame and coupled together to move in parallel to each other. As will be evident to one skilled in the art, the inability to move the pivot axis with respect to the frame will constrain the knife edge to move along a fixed slicing path and will likely limit the size of foodstuff that can be sliced using such an arrangement.
In U.S. Pat. No. 717,223 the adjustable slicing device is disclosed which attempts to solve the problem of the positioning of the blade when it makes its initial slice by slidably coupling the blade or blades to a post mounted perpendicular to the base. This slicing device has limits to variety of sizes of foodstuffs that can be sliced and the slicing device cannot be effectively used to slice hard foodstuffs such as squash.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,685 a cutting board and a leveraged knife apparatus which facilitates cutting of objects is disclosed. The apparatus includes a cutting board having a vertically oriented support member having a plurality of fulcrums positioned at convenient, discrete vertical intervals proceeding upwardly from the cutting board. The apparatus includes a knife probably a chef's knife, with tip of blade having on its upper proximate edge, means for removably engaging a convenient one of the fulcrums. However, the disadvantage with the art is that there is a limitation on the precision to which the height of the knife can be adjusted. The size of the foodstuff being sliced is generally limited. This happens because the distance between the knife and board is fixed. Assuming that the cutting device starts parallel to the cutting surface, after cutting mid way through a large vegetable or fruit, intentional removal of the knife might be required to change the fulcrum point to a lower one so as to continue further cutting of the article, thus making the process cumbersome at times. Further, a specially provisioned knife has to be used with the same.
Yet another prior art discloses a repositionable blade with a pair of bosses. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,455,005, the pair of bosses on the knife preferably coupled to a set of fixed fulcrums acting as a pivot for the blade is described. The pivot or lever action of the blade permits a user to more easily cut through tough or hard foodstuff. It has multiple fulcrum points to permit a user to lower the blade to make successively deeper slices. The slicing device may also dissemble for cleaning and sanitizing. However, the disadvantages with the art include that there is a limitation on the precision to which the height of the knife can be adjusted, that it will not function without a specialized knife with bosses, and that the engagement is prone to unwanted disengagement. The knife being used is a specially customized knife with a protocol for assembling it with the apparatus before being used. The device requires that the user pull on the handle while cutting to prevent disengagement of the knife bosses to the fulcrums and the consequential auto-release. Exerting a constant pulling upon a knife while cutting is not a natural activity for many people. The manufactures have added a downward facing segment at the rear edge of the specialized knife handle that presumably may assist in exerting such a pulling force. A special additional locking mechanism is specified, which fixes the specialized knife into only one fulcrum, it may become separated from the device in the kitchen and be unavailable for use.